Life makes love work hard
by Author-of-awesomeness
Summary: Okay, so this is a post-war dramione. Been done, i know, but not like this. Well, yeah, Draco and Hermione are heads, and sharing quarters, but the plot is different! Lots of unexpected twists and turned, because life really does make love work hard. Can the pair admit feelings for each other? And if they do, can the world accept it? T for future content. May change.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione took a deep breath. Although she should have been relived to be returning to Hogwarts, she was anything but.  
Since Voldemort's demise, neither her nor the other two members of the Trio had got a moment's peace. Between the press, their families and friends, and their stardom, there had been scarely a moment to rest for any of them.  
Although Voldemort had been defeated, and his Death Eaters, for the most part, imprisoned to Azkaban, Hermione still felt a huge pressure on her shoulders. As the only one of the Trio to return to her studies, she had to perform exceptionally well. After all, she had always managed to in the past, under more extreme circumstances..so this year should be a breeze, surely?  
But there was one extra factor, one over-riding thing that changed everything. Her fans.  
Hogwarts was providing her no escape from her fame; since arriving at Platform 9 3/4, Hermione had found herself plagued by students, desperate for her attention. And. Hermione knew, none of that was going to change once everyone found out that it was she who was the Head Girl. If anything, it would make matters worse. But, she reasoned, there was one perk; the shared quarters with the Head Boy gave her a new place to hide, where only teachers and the Head Boy has access to. And Hermione was sure that who-ever was Head Boy would be more than willing to leave her in peace.  
Hermione sighed, and stepped cautiously onto the train, hurrying to the Prefect department, at the all-too far away end of the carriage.

* * *

She had had to pull her badge out a couple times, and once even her wand when a star-struck group of first years wouldn't move out of her way, but Hermione made it to the compartment. With a tangible sigh of relief, she pulled the doors open and closed again, slumping instantly onto the seat. She allowed herself afew moments of respite, before forcing her eyes open.  
She did so to find 6 anxious prefects, all staring at her with mixed expressions of wonder and worry. Quickly glancing around at the faces looming infront of her, she groaned. None of them she recognised.  
Pushing herself to sit up properly, she glared at the students until they moved away from her.  
Still glaring, she glanced over them all again, her expression puzzled.  
"Where's the Head Boy?" She asked, some-what annoyed.  
A familiar voice drawled an answer. "He's behind you."  
Turning slowly, as if in a dream, Hermione faced the door of the compartment to see her worst nightmare stood, as cocky and arrogant as ever.  
She gasped. "Malfoy..."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N  
I know that the last chapter was really short, but count that as a prologue-type thing;)And i apologise for the huge gap, but i have only limited access to a computor:3 Anyways, shall we continue the story? :D**

DISCLAIMER THAT I FORGOT TO PUT IN THE FIRST CHAPTER:  
Last time i checked, i am not J.K...'pologies for that...Kudos to Rowling for an amazing story, and some amazing play-things for me;D Anyhoo, nothing but the plot is mine...enjoy!

* * *

"What is taking you so long?" Hermione screamed, banging on the door of the bathroom she was forced to share with one Draco Malfoy. They had only arrived at Hogwarts the previous day, yet already he had made her begin to regret her decision to return. She had never got that safe haven she had dreamed of on the train, before she had found out who the Head Boy was. Malfoy took every opportunity to irk her. And right now, he was taking ages getting ready.  
"Malfoy!" She shrieked, her voice shrilly with rage. "We will be late for the first prefect meeting of the year! How do you think that will look, if the Head Boy and Girl can't even be bothered to show up on time? What kind of example would we be setting?"  
She went to bang on the door again, but was stopped when it was abruptly opened. The platinum-blonde of her nightmares leaned against the door frame with an air of casual arrogance.  
"Don't worry so, Granger. Malfoy's are never late; every-one else is merely late." He smirked his trademark smirk, the one that had haunted her throughout her time at the school. Hermione fought the rather powerful urge to punch him, as she had done in her third year.  
Fixing a smirk of her own on her face, Hermione retorted, "Yeah, well you sure were _late_ enough to decide that you didn't like Voldemort." She looked pointedly at his right forearm, where she knew to be his Dark-Mark.  
To her suprise, Malfoy actually flinched slightly at her comment, but he regained his icy composure almost instantly.  
"And your friends were late enough to aid you during your...troubles at the Manor." He said, with a degrading sneer. He cast a look of his own at her upper arm, where her scar was. Hermione looked down at his own arm, eyes wide, face blank, as if she were un-willing to accept what he had just said to her. Then all at once, she felt tears well up in her eyes and spill over, painfully hot against her skin.  
"You know nothing of that, you coward." She said, deadly quiet.  
"In-case you hadn't forgotten, I was there, Granger."  
"Oh, i hadn't forgotten. How could I? You were there, and you did nothing to stopher, to stop what was so evidently wrong. And for that, i will never. ever be able to forgive you." She brushed past him, into the bathroom and slammed the door closed behind her, wiping the tears off of her face.  
"You are strong." She told herself, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She had grown gaunt, she realised. And she was paler than she used to be, too. With a sigh, she tore her eyes away from the deep-set ones in the mirror. "You are strong." She repeated, voice barely above a whisper. "Strong".

* * *

The rest of that day passed without any other real tribulations. After she had returned from the prefect meeting, Hermione has retreated into her room and stayed there for the rest of the day. When, however, she had done all of the work she could do by herself, she dragged herself reluctantly from her room. Tiptoeing, she slowly crept down the stairs to the sitting room that she shared with the Slytherin. She saw him sat on the sofa, with his back to the staircase that led to the bathroom and their rooms. Taking a deep breath, she sat down on the sofa, as far away from him as she could get, without being off of the sofa.

"Finally stopped sulking, Granger?" Malfoy asked without looking up at her from the book he was reading.  
Hermione huffed angrily. "I was not sulking. I had every right to be upset after your comment."  
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, i wanted to check over the Prefect duty list i made with you." He accio'd a piece of parchemant from the pile on the small coffee table that sat infront of them.  
"You already did the lists?"She asked, indignant.  
"Well, one of us had to do something useful whilst you sulked." Malfoy smirked, looking at her for the first time that evening.  
"I was not sulking!" She exploded. "I was merely-"  
"So i put Neville and Hannah together on Mondays." Malfoy broke in smoothly. "And Ginny and Luna together on Tuesdays. I was unsure who to pair with Blaise, however." He looked sheepish. "Everyone i thought of would readily murder him, purely because of his father's actions, regardless of his lack of status as a Death Eater."  
Hermione thought for a moment, before sighing loudly. "I shall patrol with Zabini."She told him, and promptly took the list from him, and added her own name next to the Slytherin's. She handed it back to him, smirking at his shocked expression.  
Malfoy cleared his throat, and recovered. "Okay, then. That leaves Adam and Sarah on Thursday, Theo and Dennis on Friday -"

"No. No way." Hermione admonished him. "Theo will bully poor Dennis! Switch him around!"  
With a scowl, Malfoy reluctantly scrawled out Dennis' name, and replaced it with another. "Fine." He amended. "Theo and Cho on Friday. I'm sure you will agree that she can handle herself. Parvati and Dean on Saturday. and Seamus and myself on Sunday. Agreed?"  
Hermione scowled at him, trying desperately to find some flaw with his routine. FInding none, she complied. "Agreed."

* * *

**Okay, guys, reviews make for more confidence, and a higher possibility that i'ma continue the story! Please give me any review, both criticism and praise...both are equally as helpful!**


	3. Chapter 3

AN:I know it's been awhile, but life-and the fact that i have barely any access to a computer get in the way! Anyhoo, i do think of the story, and will update asregularly as i can! Thankyou for reading it, please review it and tell me what you think!

* * *

Hermione did her best to ignore the Slytherin to her left, but he wasn't making it very easy.  
"You enjoying being back at Hogwarts?" Blaise said, attempting to start a conversation for the tenth time since they had started their patrol an hour ago.  
"Sure," Hermione replied sarcasticly. "I love being back here, where everywhere i look i am reminded of all of the innocent people who died during the battle, not to mention some of my closest friends."  
He flinched at her icy comment, but Hermione refused to acknowledge him. She really wasn't in the mood for conversation; she had left the Head's quarters for no more than ten minutes while she ran an errand, yet when she had come back, Malfoy had been sat on the sofa, reading the book she had left on the table(A muggle book, called Little Women). Not only that, but he commented on the ending, which she had not read yet revealing the death of her favourite character! Hermione growled at the memory.  
"Er, you okay, Granger?" Blaise asked somewhat nervously.  
"Just dandy." She replied drily. To her suprise, the Slytherin boy laughed.  
"Draco being a bad room-mate?"  
"You have no idea! He leaves his clothes lying all about the place -not his own room, mind you, but the living room that we share! He spends hours 'getting ready' in the bathroom, and then emerges looking no different to when he went in there, but leaving me with only ten minutes to get ready, if i'm lucky! He thinks it's okay to go through my stuff, and just help himself to all of my things! I bought 5 new quills with me to Hogwarts, and he's gone and helped himself to 3 of them! I don't know where he gets off, thinking he's so great, but he's really getting under my skin, and we've barely been back 4 days!" Hermione fumed, suprised at just how muc the slimy git got under her skin. Blaise just laughed at her.  
"You have to put him in his place, that's all. He's used to always getting what he wanted, when he wanted it. I think this...experience will do him so good" He smiled at her.  
"Not if it kills me first."Hermione muttered darkly, but she couldn't keep up her scowl, and ended up smiling at Blaise instead, much to her immense surprise.  
After that, the pair walked in a more companiable silence, until Blaise interuppted the series of spells that Hermione had been running through her mind-ones that she could use against her room-mate, if he really began to grate on her.  
"Are we all done, then?" Blaise asked, as they walked the last few steps until they were infront of the Headteacher's office.  
"I believe so." Hermione replied, chewing on her lip like she always did when she was thinking.  
"What's wrong?" He asked, mistaking her gesture for one of worry. She shook her head.  
"Nothing, I was just thinking-by reacting, surely i'm giving Malfoy exactly what he wants? So. maybe i should just stop re-acting?"  
Blaise smiled a her. "Exactly. Draco will get bored, and move on."  
"All i have to do is wait."

* * *

The day after he duty, Hermione had woken tofeel more refreshed. She had a new outlook, and she was not going to let Malfoy ruin her last year at HOgwarts. She was determined to enjoy herse;f - it would be her only year without having to worry about Voldemort, and his plans, and Harry and Ron's safety. It was with this thought that she skipped off chirply to breakfast before her first class, with Professor Binns.

"All throughout Wizarding History, we can see evidence of how our ancestors practiced arranged marriages. Particularly between Pure-blood families, whose children were often betrothed before their birth. These agreements were often made to strengthen the family by tieing it to another of high standard." Professor Binn's voice droned, as Hermione listened avidly. Of course, she already knew all of this, but it was still fascinating to hear about. In the Muggle world, she knew, arranged marriages were considered an abomination; yet here they were openly practiced.  
She didn't think that the Wizarding World would ever cease to be an amazement for her, even after all she had seen. But then, all of the dark magic she had seen, all of the foul creatures, had all had a counter-balance, all had a good counter-part. Like Dementors; Hermione hated the creatures. She hated the way they bought sadness wherever they went. Yet the Patronus charm, the very charm that was used against the Dementors, was a thing of complete, pure beauty. Patronus's were honest; they showed the caster's soul, and that was what made them so magical.  
"If you would all turn to page 38 in your books, you will find a sketch showing the very creature i am describing to you. Mermaids have long been a source of controversy amongst wizards, with some Wizards claiming that they are highly volatile, and others saying that they are simply misunderstood, and that if we were to take the time to understand them better, that we would see this, too."  
Hermione's hand shot up. "Don't some accounts say that Mermaids are dangerous, but only when they are pushed? I read about mermaids, in Hogwarts: A History, and it said that Mermaids have always lived in the Black Lake, and have never once attacked or harmed any students to swim in the waters."  
"Quite right, Miss Granger." Binns said, as several groans could be heard from the Slytherin corner. "Five points to Gryffindor."  
Hermione smiled, but her smile vanished when she heard a smug, prissy voice sayin loudly. "Just brilliant. Bloody fantastic. You reward her, she's going to think she's done something right, and do it again."  
Angrily, she spun sround in her seat to see Malfoy leaninhg back smugly, with a big grin on his face. Hermione felt her face flush, but as she looked closer, she noticed the uneasy-ness of the Slytherin's smiles, the careful distance between themselves and Malfoy, and the slightly anxious expression on his face. Gritting her teeth, she struggled not to retort.  
"What, no comeback? No lecture on how rude i was?" Hermione noticed the confusion in his eyes. "Have i finally rendered the Great Hermione Granger speechless?" Smug victory lit his eyes up, and Hermione clenched her fists.  
"Actually, Malfoy," She replied in a forcedly calm manner, "I was just noticing your distinct lack of brains. You're honestly insulting me, without anyone having your back?" Her voice was dripping with a deadly sweetness.  
Malfoy narrowed his eyes, confused briefly, before glancing around him at his fellow house-mates, none of whom seemed to be able to catch his eye. When he turned back to her, his exprerssion was blazing with hatred. She almost flinched.  
"And then, as a result of that, all of the Clarymont family decided that they were going to move to Romania, so as to be as far away from the Blacks as they could."  
Binn's voice sounded, and Hermione realized that he had not noticed any of the out-burst. Witha sigh, she tore her gaze away from Malfoy's burning one, and focused as best she could on the lesson.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Please review, tell me all of your thoughts! For without them, i cannot change any problems that you might have, so...enjoy;D

* * *

Hermione turned the page of her book slowly, determined to drag the moment out for as long as possible. "I don't know." She finally drawled slowly. "I'm not sure it sounds like something I would want to do, i'm afraid."  
"What do you mean, not something you would want to do?" Malfoy demanded. "I'm only asking to swap patrol partners with you, it's not like i'm asking you to help me bring the Dark Lord back or anything! I thought you liked Seamus, anyway!"  
She looked up at him, saw the annoyance in his face, and turned her eyes to her book once more. "Oh, I like Seamus," She began breezily. "That's not my problem. My problem is you." She glanced once more up at Malfoy's now scowling features. "I want to know _why _you want to swap with me that badly. Now, it could always be Blaise." She peered intently at his face, trying to read his expression. "Or maybe not. So if it's not just so that you can have a chat with your old friend, then what is it?"  
Malfoy didn't answer, deigning to instead glare at her with venom in his cold, grey eyes. Hermione waited, before sighing dramatically and turning back to her book.  
The silence lasted for a few moments, before being broken by Malfoy's loud groan.  
"Okay! I just can't stand him, he's so annoying! He talks non-stop in that annoying Irish accent of his, and i can't take another evening of it!" He gestured wildly as he spoke, illustrating his annoyance.  
Hermione grinned in triumph. "Why Draco dear, why ever didn't you just say so?"  
"So you'll swap with me?" His voice was eager, and Hermione had to stifle a laugh as she pretended to think about a response. "No, sorry. I quite like Blaise, and I know for a fact that Seamus doesn't say a word to you; he hates you too much. Now, are you going to tell me the real reason, or can i get back to my book?"  
"Fine." Malfoy muttered, sulking. "If you must know, it's Blaise. You must have seen how the other students are with me; they don't come anywhere near me." He shrugged. "I don't particularly care what the others think of my, but the Slytherins are my house-mates; the closest things to friends i ever had. And now..." He let his voice trial off, and Hermione just sat there, stunned. She hadn't actually expected him to reply with honesty. And, she had noticed it. She remembered the dig she had made at him and felt horrible; she had thought he knew.  
"I can speak to him, if you'd like." She began gently, unsure how to proceed. "I'm pretty sure that i could ask him to talk to you, or to-"  
"I don't want your charity, Granger!" He spat, face contorted in anger. "I don't need _YOU _thinking that you know my best friend enough to 'get him to talk to me'." He crudely imitated her voice, high-pitched and squeaky. "I don't need you thinking that i'm just another lost case, another poor, damaged soul for you to help so that you can feel fucking better about yourself!" He was shouting now, and she just sat there, blood completely drained from her face, on the brink of tears. "I don't need a fucking _Mud-blood _ fucking getting off on making _poor ickle Draco _all fucking better. I don't fucking need you!" He snarled, glaring at her with a look so venomous, so full of hatred and loathing, that Hermione just wanted to go somewhere and curl up into a ball to get away from the self-loathing that she felt at the moment. She wanted to be anywhere but there, anywhere but with him, who she could not afford to let see the tears that were building up.  
"I'm sorry," She half-whispered, half-choked out, as she fled their quarters, leaving Malfoy standing alone, still breathing heavily.

* * *

"I'm going to kill him." Blaise growled, as he paced across his room in the Slytherrin dungeons. (All of the returning students had been given their own bedrooms, due to lack of room in the dorms.)  
"Blaise, please, listen to me!" Hermione begged from where she sat on the edge of his bed. She had, for lack of other places to go, run to Blaise's room in search of a shoulder to cry on. She had expected him to find some excuse for Malfoy's actions, as he always did. Not to get angry, and then to just ignore her.  
"He was angry, okay?"She said. "Besides, it wasn't that bad. Really, I just over-reacted. All he did was shout at me." She laughed weakly. "It's no big deal. Really." She added, as he stopped pacing and walked towards her.  
"It's not fine." He said quietly, sitting and joining her. "You came in here, sobbing your eyes out. You were in pieces, Hermione." He narrowed his eyes. "Why are you defending him?"  
"He's your friend,"She breathed, anxious of saying the wrong thing, but also incredibly grateful that she hadn't mentioned what he had called her. "I don't want to be the cause of you two falling out."  
Blaise studied her for a moment, his face only inches from hers, before sitting back. "We haven't been friends, not for a long time." He began sadly. "Not since he got...that mark, anyway."  
Hermione understood what he meant. "He misses you, you know." She told him, shifting over slightly.  
"I know." Blaise told her, sighing softly. "I miss him too."  
"Then why can't you be friends again?"  
"It's complicated, Hermione." He told her, sighing again.  
"I know." She replied simply. She glanced down at her hands, and when she looked up again, she found him watching her.  
"What?" She asked nervously, blushing ever so slightly.  
Blaise shook his head ever so slightly before tearing his gaze away and answering simply, "Nothing."


End file.
